Our Food Budget

After reading other blogs and seeing the comments left on this post, I realize that my husband and I have a very different food budget than most others in the personal finance world.  That spurred me to come clean...here's where our food money has gone in 2010:

1.  Kroger's - We spend about $125 a month for perishables like whole milk, Country Crock margarine spread, real butter, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, other fruit that is in season and cheap, Digiorno pizzas, hot dogs, Manager Special steaks, frozen Tilapia, and necessary parts of a menu that we don't buy in bulk.

2.  Sam's Club - We spend about $30 a month on steaks, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork chops, frozen green beans, frozen corn on the cob, Honey Nut Cheerios, Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread, and potato chips.  I usually make a Sam's Club run once every 2 -3 months.

3.  Angel Food Ministries - Whenever we like the monthly menu for their Signature Box, we buy 1 or 2 boxes at $30 each.  Each box gives us enough food for at least 10 meals and sides for a few more.

4.  Walmart - We spend about $50 a month on cleaning supplies, hygiene products, hamburger meat, sandwich meat, and miscellaneous food items that are cheaper there than at Kroger with my coupons.

5.  Restaurants and Fast Food - We eat out at least 1-2 times a week and it adds up to about $200 a month.  It would be more if I wasn't such a fan of value menus and soups.

Altogether we spend about $400 on food every month, which is actually down from the $600 a month we were spending last year.  We've started eating at home much more which allows us to buy in bulk and throw less away. 

I do use coupons, but not to the extent of true couponers.  I simply spend 20 minutes at work every week cutting out ones that may come in handy and putting them into my wallet.  Before checking out, I pull my cart over in a vacant aisle and spend 2 minutes grabbing out the coupons that match cart items.  I do not even look at the coupons until I'm done shopping since I don't want the coupons to entice me to buy something that wasn't on my list or buy a different brand.

Our dinners usually consist of a grilled protein seasoned by hubby and two sides.  Most frequently, these sides are mashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, carrots, or rice.  We also make salads, Pizza Hut Sandwiches (the most delicious and fattening toasted sandwich ever), soft tacos, chili, pasta, taco salad, hamburgers, and hot dogs every month or two as well.  We try a new recipe every once in a while and add it to the normal rotation if it was good.

As you can see, our diet isn't the healthiest ever, but it looks way better than last year.  Please just take this as the food confession it is and a quick summary of our personal food budget.

Does your food budget include more organic and free range choices?  Or does it look similar to ours?

The Special That Sucked Me In...

I realized when I read Suckered By the Discount? at A Gai Shan Life that I had just fallen prey to a special the day before.  The point of the post was to remind you that discounts and specials only save you money if you were going to buy it anyway.  They end up "suckering" you if the discount or special is what causes you to shop to start with...

I fell prey to a jewelry special.  I received a mailed ad in April that said that Zales was selling a sterling silver and diamond accent heart pendant and chain for Mother's Day for $19.99 instead of their "regular" $119.00 price.  Of course I knew that they'd never be able to get $119, but the $20 price tag was calling my name.  I immediately thought, "Wow, that's just too good to pass up."  Yep, I was sucked in.

I thought about that ad for the rest of the day and even put the days of the special on my calendar.  I thought that the pull of the deal would wear off in the couple of weeks before the sale, but it didn't.  I ended up going to Zales the first day of the special right after work.

Even though they were out of the necklaces by the time I got there, they were "helpfully" taking layaway orders for them at the $20 price if I would be willing to wait 4-8 weeks for them to arrive.  I was fine with that and ended up ordering 5 of these things for $108.20 with tax!
My thinking is that I'll have one for my mom, both of my younger sisters, my grandma, and myself - like diamond friendship necklaces for all my girls.  I'm hoping I can give them out all at once in September but they could still be considered birthday gifts for everybody since all of their birthdays fall between September and November.

Yeah, I'm a sucker and I'm cheap...this post is making me look really good...lol.
So I'm okay with my purchase since I think they will be appreciated,  BUT I'd be $108 richer right now if I had never seen that special in the mail.

Have you been sucked in by a discount or special before?  Feel silly (like me) later?

BFS has a Guest Post about Recurring Expenses at Free From Broke

Free From Broke was kind enough to let me guest post today with Recurring Expenses Will Kill Your Budget-Choose Wisely. 

It's my personal take on prioritizing recurring monthly expenses.  What's on the top of your list?

Spending Less Than You Earn

I hit on the main ways of diagnosing your financial health in this past post.  I'm going to use Wednesdays to go further in depth on each point since I truly believe that financial health leads to less stress and happier lives.

The first point was to spend less than you earn.  This means that the money you have going out needs to be less (hopefully a lot less) than the money you have coming in.  Constant, overwhelming debt is not healthy for you or your future.

List Your Income and Expenses
In order to spend less than you earn, you need to know how much you earn and how much you spend.  I'd suggest writing down your known monthly income and expenses first.  Then spend a whole month adding anything you missed to that list.  Not only will this be a definitive picture of your spending and salary, but it will give you a great start on beginning a budget as well.

Ways to Widen the Gap
If you are not where you want to be once you've seen this list, you do have options:

1)  Decrease your spending.
2)  Get a better paying job.
3)  Find other income sources.

Decrease Spending
To decrease your spending, I'd suggest first cancelling or discontinuing any expenses that you really don't want or need.  Don't go crazy or be regretful...simply cut the fat.  I was surprised at some expenses I forgot about when we started tracking our spending.  It was easy to cut out an $8 monthly online game membership fee and a $25 a month gym membership since we had stopped using both of those.

If that doesn't solve your problems, then look to cut expenses that you might want, but don't really need.  Luxury expenses can wait until your income increases.  I'd consider internet and a cell phone as almost-necessities, but cable isn't.  I'm sorry since I love cable, but if you aren't making more than you spend, it has got to go.

Income Ideas
If you still aren't there yet after getting back to the basics, then you need to look at increasing your income. 

Obviously, only you know you well enough to get a better-paying job.  Other income sources are also a personal matter.  I worked for a book store for $7 an hour for 3 months in order to make a little part-time cash.  I've also babysat and taken care of pets.  I've most recently started a blog, although I wouldn't consider this a great way to make fast money (I've made about $10 in 2 months).  My husband is a contract sports official for middle school and high school football and basketball.  He can also tutor.  What sounds good to you?

In short, you need to spend less than you earn to stay fiscally sane.  I prefer to spend much less than we earn since we have an early retirement goal.  Look at your situation and access your options to make this happen.  Good luck.

Are you spending less than you earn?  If so, are you happy with your position?  If not, did this article help?  Does anybody else have any suggestions on this point?

Personal Income is Still Low but Consumer Spending is Rising Again

According to this article, personal income fell in 42 states in 2009. Yet, according to this article, consumer spending is back on the rise and looks to be sustainable.  We have record unemployment but the consumer market is getting better…huh.

This tells me that some people have not taken their new situation into account or the lucky ones aren’t preparing for the worst.

My husband and I are the “lucky ones” since our income didn’t fall. Neither one of us got raises, but we also didn’t get cuts. We have a solid emergency fund and several savings accounts in case the worst happens, but so far, we’re okay. But we haven’t increased our spending in the last 2 years either.

So, we are obviously not contributing to the stats of either article.

Since we know friends that have had pay cuts or gone through job losses, it’s easy for me to understand that personal incomes as a whole have fallen. I just don’t understand how consumer spending is rising…

Do you know anyone who’s started spending more than they were over the last 2 years?

Oh well, at least the economy will be puttering along pretty well by the end of 2010. Maybe some jobs will open up and personal income levels will rise as well.

Our Monthly Budget

To lay the last bit of our financial foundation, I wanted to share our monthly budget.  Our exact expenses change a little month-to-month, but this is the basic picture of our spending:

• Mortgage - $900
• Emergency Fund - $500
• Tax Account - $400
• Home Account - $350
• Roth IRA - $300
• Vacation Account - $250
• Cash - $200
• Extra Roth IRA - $120
• Extra Masters Money - $125
• Car Payment - $330
• Car Insurance - $110
• Gasoline - $150
• Electricity - $150
• Cable & Internet - $100
• Cell Phones - $80
• Water - $30
• Garbage - $20
• Groceries - $300
• Fast Food/Restaurants - $200
• Misc Bills/Car Maintenance - $200
• Entertainment/Misc Fun ($75 each and $100 joint) - $250
• Medical - $100
• Maid Service (biweekly $45) - $100
• Lawn Service (biweekly 8 months a year) - $50
• Netflix - $20
• Pet Expenses - $100
• Massage Envy - $50
• Total = $5485

That comes to $65,820 a year.  We make $78,000 before taxes plus the $4000 a year my hubby makes as a sports official.  Taxes, the pension, the 401k, and our benefits account for the other $16,180.

Needless to say, I am anal enough to keep up with every single expenditure.  Unplanned expenses are taken from the appropriate target accounts.  Also, before anyone asks, I contribute considerable time to my charities and we both use some of our "fun" money for the charities of our choosing.

I didn't start this blog to brag.  This is to show that a teacher and an office worker can use their money as a considerable tool to build wealth in less than 5 years.  By spending less than you earn and saving the rest, you can create wealth.  All of my favorite blogs boil down to that basic idea, yet people question it's possibility.  Saving is possible...it's even fun.  I never worry about making our next mortgage payment or having enough to pay our bills.  That is priceless to me.  :-)

Would a budget like this help you?